DAVID Aiken admits he has a soft spot for his much-improved pacer Karlsruhe.

The five-year-old has overcome more than most of his rivals to make it to Saturday night's heats of the Watpac Inter Dominion at Geelong.

The hurdles started at birth.

Karlsruhe's mum, Sugar Shot, died giving birth and only a freakish circumstance saved Karlsruhe from the same fate.

Renowned Shepparton veterinary surgeon Jim Vasey lived next door to the property where Karlsruhe was born, and was there within minutes. He arranged for a foster mare to help the tiny colt through the crucial first few weeks of life.

Karlsruhe pulled through, but Aiken said it was touch and go whether he would make it as a racehorse.

"Going through what he did and being an orphan took its toll," Aiken said. "He was always very small. When they went to break him in, they thought he might be too small."

It took plenty of patience from Graeme Rice, then Geoff Martin before a still immature Karlsruhe made it to Aiken's place as a three-year-old.

"He had a couple of runs as a three-year-old and showed some promise, but it all became too much for him and he needed another long spell. He came back as a four-year-old and raced consistently, but it wasn't until late that season when he ran an unlucky fourth in the Vicbred final behind By My Side that I realised he had some serious potential."

That potential has turned into performance this season.

"I thought he'd make a nice horse. But on what he's done this season he could be the horse I've been waiting for since I moved from NSW (to Shepparton) 12 years ago," he said.

Karlsruhe has raced 16 times this season for seven wins and three placings and earned $61,031.

His earnings would have been considerably higher had he not been stopped in his tracks in the Group 1 Hunter Cup.

"It's hard to say he was going to win, but he had a head for steam up and he was sprinting home very strongly," he said. "Put it this way, he would have made it very interesting."

Aiken finished second with Ultra Jet in the 1994 Inter Dominion in Sydney.

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